Gisèle Pelicot and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe among Hay Festival 2026 speakers
The line-up for this year’s festival includes Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Ian McEwan and other prominent authors and figures
‘We all want to know what he was doing in the bedroom’: Kerouac’s unseen archive goes on show in New York
As the original On the Road scroll heads to auction, a new exhibition uncovers the private life of the Beat legend
Scarlet review – Mamoru Hosoda turns Hamlet into tale of prowling knights and deep ‘nothingness’
The normally great director misses the mark with a wonderfully animated but narratively clunky retelling of the Shakespearean staple
Love Magic Power Danger Bliss by Paul Morley review – Yoko Ono before the Beatles
A vivid celebration of the artist covers her childhood and breakthrough in New York – while sidelining ‘that other business’
Why Train Dreams should win the best picture Oscar
With its meditative pace and sincere interest in moral questions, Clint Bentley’s film of a rudderless man cutting down trees in Idaho’s verdant vistas has the air of a Hollywood classic from another era
Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester review – a battle between millennials and boomers
There are sharply observed pleasures to be found in this black comedy of infidelity, revenge and intergenerational tension – but the plot is both implausible and predictable
Quiz books are the answer to falling non-fiction sales, data shows
2025 was the best year for quiz book sales since records began in 1998; while Bibles also proved popular
Rare items of Charles Dickens’ clothing to go on display in London
Exhibition includes linen shirt collar from when author suffered a fatal stroke along with other personal items
Which are more like life, novels or films?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
Vladimir author Julia May Jonas: ‘We’re imprisoned by our obsessions’
As her debut novel becomes a Netflix series starring Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall, the American author talks about comparisons with Lolita, moving on from #MeToo and problematic authors
Plan to turn Irish borderlands into Unesco ‘region of literature’
Arts group proposes literary routes across 11 counties linked to writers from Jonathan Swift to Lisa McGee
Jack White: ‘I’m not going to put a painful thing out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over’
As a new book of his lyrics, poems and selected musings is published, the White Stripes’ singer, songwriter and general guitar hero reflects on poetry, politics and why writing a song is like reupholstering a chair
Malorie Blackman on Noughts & Crosses at 25: ‘It’s even more relevant today’
Her YA classic was inspired by racism in 1990s Britain. A quarter of a century later, she talks about success, death threats and getting shoutouts from Tinie Tempah and Stormzy
A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello review – a profound exploration of the inner life
How are we to account for things that lie outside ordinary language? A woman’s emotions are precisely observed in a novel that brilliantly captures what it means to be human
The play that changed my life: ‘There were cheers, screams and gasps at our story – we couldn’t believe it!’
Dramatising Onjali Q Raúf’s refugee tale The Boy at the Back of the Class brought cheers and boos from a young audience – showing they can handle the truth